Written by

Sarah Fluker

Staff Writer

The Department of Defense is lifting the ban restricting women from military combat roles in order to eliminate gender inequality in service. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made the announcement in late January, citing hopes for a stronger military and a stronger nation.

“Our men and women in uniform could not ask for more from their leaders in uniform,” said Panetta in a public statement. “I fundamentally believe that our military is more effective when success is based solely on ability and qualifications and on performance.”

Previous restrictions that barred women from combat were based on the Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule. Implemented nearly a decade ago, the memo excluded women below the brigade level from engaging enemies on the ground with weapons and being exposed to hostile fire on the battlefield.

According to the Department of Defense, women make up 15 percent of U.S. forces. Steps towards the official policy modification were taken last year, when 14,000 positions were expanded for women in limited ground combat units.

Retired Maj. West, a Tallahassee native, has served in over 56 countries as an infantry officer. Throughout his service, he has witnessed women play critical combat support roles on the battlefield that placed them in harm’s way. Maj. West was not surprised by the Pentagon’s announcement.

“Of course, women have been in the military ever since men have been in the military,” Maj. West said. “It really began with Harry Truman back in 1951 that integrated all of the services. It took minorities and put them all in the mainstream, which was probably one of the greatest civil rights acts ever,” said West. “Next was Brown v. Board of Education in the 60s, and that did away with this separate but equal notion, which is pretty important.”

Those who oppose women in combat have often cited physical gender differences as a permanent biological impediment. Maj. West considers separate physical fitness standards and male-only mandated Selective Service as potential boundaries to total equality.

“The army is not about ones and twos,” West said. “This is a fighting force. One team, one fight. Everybody has to pull their equal share.”

According to Megan Mackenzie, Ph.D, in the Dec. 2012 issue of Foreign Affairs, physical fitness is not gender bound, but rather a reflection of personal determination.

“To put it bluntly, there are physically fit, tough women who are suitable for combat, and weak, feeble men who are not,” wrote Mackenzie. “The U.S. armed services would do a better job recognizing this were it not for the fact that, as critics have pointed out, the military’s physical standards were created to measure male fitness, not job effectiveness.”

Senior international affairs and women’s studies major and activist Jessica Schwartz says the announcement is a step in the right direction. She warns that it should not be an excuse to stop striving for equal rights, such as access to reproductive health.

“I think it’s important to take into account that war also hurts women,” said Schwartz. “Not just our women who fight in combat and face higher rates of sexual assault than men in combat, but also women overseas who are affected by these wars.”

Last year, the ACLU sued the Department of Defense for excluding women from combat positions and ground combat special operations in the Hegar, et al. v. Panetta case. The complainant charged that “The combat exclusion is based on outdated stereotypes of women and ignores the reality of the modern military and battlefield conditions.”

A Gallup poll taken on the same day as the Pentagon’s announcement found that 74 percent of Americans favor expanding combat roles to women.

Samantha Drumb, a senior editing writing and media major, is in the ROTC program at Florida State. She says she is surprised it took this long for the military to change its policy and offer full equal opportunity. As a company commander of the Alpha unit in the ROTC’s Navy core, she says the implementation of the policy will likely be a process of trial and error of as the military adjusts to women in combat duty.

“Women have to prove themselves more than men do,” said Drumb. “We have to work harder.”